Roskelley- Samuel Roskelley Bio

LDS Biographical Encyclopedia Vol 1 page 400
Roskelley, Samuel, president of the High Priests' quorum in the Benson Stake of Zion, is the son of Thomas Roskelley and Ann Kitt, and was born Jan. 1, 1837, at Devonport, Devonshire, England. He was the youngest of six children, and received a fair education, preparing for a position under the British government. Attracted by the singing of the Latter-day Saints, in the fall of 1851, he came to their meetings and was soon convinced that they taught Bible truths, and he was consequently baptized Dec. 3, 1851, by Elder James Caffall; confirmed Dec. 7, 1851, by Elder William G. Mills. Although but a boy, he took much interest in the doctrines of the gospel, and accompanied the Elders and Priests in visiting other towns and villages to preach. Ordinations to the offices of Deacon and Priest soon followed, and by endeavoring to magnify these offices he won the love and esteem of the Elders and Saints and the ill will of his parents and relatives. He filled the positions of branch clerk, conference clerk and book agent, until he was ordained an Elder March 15, 1853, by Joseph Hall, preparatory to leaving England for Zion, on the ship "Falcon" He sailed from Liverpool March 26, 1853, and landed at New Orleans; thence the journey was continued to Keokuk, Iowa, and he crossed that State and the great plains in Appleton M. Harmon's company, arriving in Salt Lake City, Oct. 16, 1853, without kindred, or friends, save those in the company he came with. In the spring of 1854 he hired out to Pres. Brigham Young as a teamster, and boarded with his family; he was ordained a Seventy July 1, 1855, by Pres. Lewis Robbins, and was received the same day as a member of the 2nd quorum of Seventy. He accompanied Bryant Stringam, Andrew Moffatt and others to Cache valley, to put up hay for Church stock, arriving there July 28, 1855. Being called by Pres. Brigham Young, he left Salt Lake City Sept. 12, 1856, to fill a mission to Great Britain, and he crossed the plains with a missionary company, in charge of Apostle Parley P. Pratt. After his arrival in Liverpool he was appointed to the Welsh mission. May 16, 1857, he was appointed to organize and preside over the Cardiff conference, and he labored with zeal in that position until he was released to return home with European, Canadian and United States missionaries during the Buchanan army invasion of Utah. Together with Elder John L. Smith he arrived in Salt Lake City June 22, 1858, in advance of the company, with dispatches for Pres. Brigham Young. July 22, 1858, he married Rebecca Hendricks, of Salt Lake City, Pres. Brigham Young officiating. He moved to Richmond, Cache valley, and took up land for a homestead in April, 1860, and succeeded Stephen Goddard as leader of the Richmond choir in May of that year. The choir gained much public favor by singing "Hard times come again no more" and other songs of like nature. Elder Roskelley assisted in getting out water ditches, hunting and guarding Indians, protecting and preserving horses and horned stock from the raids of hostiles, driving grasshoppers and burning them by millions, erecting public buildings, and all other labors incident to setting up a new country. He was ordained a High Priest and Bishop and set apart to preside in Smithfield Ward, Cache county, Nov. 30, 1862, by Apostle Ezra T. Benson, and Peter Maughan. Afterwards he was elected to offices of trust in the cooperative and canal companies, in which the people of the Ward were interested. He also acted in the following military offices, viz: captain of company C, 1st regiment of infantry; major of 4th battalion, first regiment of infantry; commissary of 1st regiment infantry, and chaplain of Cache Valley Brigade. He was elected and filled the important office of county superintendent of district schools for three terms, and assisted in obtaining city charter for Smithfield City and presided over its affairs for three terms as mayor; served as director in the construction of the U. & N. R. R. company, and operated as subcontractor in the construction of the S.P.R.R. With twelve days' notice he left Ogden April 13, 1880, pursuant to a call from Pres. John Taylor, as a missionary to Great Britain. After his arrival in Liverpool April 29, 1880, he was appointed to labor as traveling Elder, and succeeded Elder George H. Taylor as president of the London conference, introducing the gospel into many new localities. Being released to return to Zion, he left Liverpool June 25, 1881, in charge of 775 Saints on the steamship "Wyoming," and arrived at Ogden with the company July 15, 1881. Aug. 6, 1882, he was set apart by Pres. Joseph F. Smith as president of the High Priests' quorum in Cache Valley Stake. At the same conference he was called as a missionary worker to the St. George Temple. After filling that mission, he returned to Cache valley. March 9, 1884, he was appointed assistant to superintendent Charles O. Card in fitting up the Logan Temple for ordinance work, and on May 21, 1884, he was set apart by Pres. George Q. Cannon as recorder of the Logan Temple. He passed through many unpleasant circumstances during the anti-polygamy raid, and was arrested Jan. 8, 1889, by Deputy Marshal Hudson, charged with having many wives and children-more than the law allowed-but having at the time four living wives and 22 living children. Circumstantial evidence, however, were sufficient in the hands of a competent attorney to secure an acquittal. When the Cache Valley Stake was divided, in 1901, Elder Roskelley's home became a part of the Benson Stake, and at the first Stake conference held Aug. 4, 1901, he was sustained and set apart as president of the High Priests' quorum of said Stake.

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Samuel Roskelley
Form GROWING UP IN ZION – by Susan Arrington Madson
9Born: January 1, 1837, Devonport, Devonshire, England
9Parents: Thomas and Ann Kitt Roskelley
9Samuel immigrated to Utah in 1853 at age sixteen.
10 - 12In crossing the bench from the mouth of Emigration Canyon to the Bluff east of the city, our eyes were feasted with the sublime sight we had desired so long to see and as we caught a view of [Salt Lake] City, the throbbing of our hearts increased and our anticipations were realized—the promise of the Elders at Devonport [England] fulfilled—"I had come to Zion." . . . The . . . Salt Lake Valley looked lovely beyond description.
12 - 13

The people of [my company] seemingly all had friends to go to but me. I did not seem to have any. I seemed to be a stranger in a strange land. Perhaps my outward appearance was so repulsive that no one felt disposed to offer me a home or place to stay 'til I could find employment. I certainly was a sad looking sight—for I owned no clothing but an extra shirt except what I stood upright in that I had worn nearly all the time since I left England. It was so filled with dust and dirt, had been torn, patched and mended, was [sewed] and re-sewed while upon my body that I could not get it off my person, so it was about skin tight and I dare not stoop and had to sit down very carefully for fear of exposing my nakedness. All this came about [because of] my clothing having been stolen at Laramie [Wyoming]. Notwithstanding I thanked the Lord for His kindness and mercies to me in giving me the privilege of coming to Zion. I felt my lot a hard one as I knew no one to unburden my feelings to or ask advice from, but I knew God was my friend and I laid my case before Him and feeling that He would open up my way for good. . . .With the exception of a dog-house, I have lived in all kinds of houses from mud on. Our new home was just one large room. Father made the foundation of rock and mud, about 18" thick. This was left to dry thoroughly, then another layer would be added and dried, then another layer, and so on, working each day, until it was raised to about an 8' square. Then all of our belongings were moved in before the roof was placed. The roof consisted of two poles placed across the center and at first the wagon cover was stretched over corner-wise until the branches of a few trees and reeds and leaves and such as could be procured could be placed thereon. This foliage was made into bundles and fastened together in rows over the logs, and the children had to tromp this down. Then a covering of mud was placed over all. When a heavy rain came, of course the mud would leak and allow the water to come thru and every one had to manage a brass kettle or other utensil.—James Bryant

Bro. Nelson Spafford of Springville drove up with a team and wagon and inquired for a young man that came in with the last company of emigrants and had no home. I heard him and spoke to him. He scanned me from head to foot thinking, no doubt, I was a hard-looking subject. He said he had been recommended by some friend of his to find me as he was called on a mission to Fort Supply and wanted someone to stay with his family through the winter. He lived some 60 miles south and if I wanted to go with him and stay the winter he would give me a home and plenty to eat if I would do his work and look after his family. I thought it would be the best step I could take and told him I would do the best I could for him. . . . I got into the wagon and started for Springville without further ceremony, arriving there on the evening of the next day. Seeing my pit[i]able condition for clothing he gave me some of his partially worn clothing, as at that time clothing of any kind was very scarce and high priced. I was strange to every kind of work done in this country and whatever I went at I made hard work of it and it took me all my time to get the wood, milk the cows and do the chores for Sister Spafford and her child. Bro. Spafford soon left for his field of missionary labor and I thought I had [the] immense labor on my hands of caring for his wife and child. I had to work an ox team on shares to get the wood, but the winter passed very pleasantly. . . .
12 - 13

When Spring came Bro. Spafford came home and could do his own work so I was no longer needed by him. I felt impressed to go to Salt Lake City.When we arrived in Salt Lake Mother was so worn out with sorrow and with sitting in the wagon holding the sick children that she was so bent over, she could not straighten up. People said she looked like she was sixty years old. We landed in Salt Lake City on September 30, 1866. We had been one hundred twenty-nine days since we left Hamburg, Germany, and we had left our home about ten days before that. There had been four children when we left, now I was the only child left.—Caroline Pedersen (Hansen)

I got an opportunity to ride with one of the Brethren and went directly to President Young's and saw him and asked for work, [I] told him who I was, where I came from and what I had been doing since my arrival in Utah etc. He seemed favorably impressed and gave me work at $5.00 a month with board lodging with Bro. Hamilton G. Park. The first article I drew for pay was a pair of buckskin pants, that meant nearly three months wages. In dry weather they would come about half way between my ankles and knees and in wet weather, would flippity flop on the sidewalk every step I took. . . .
12 - 13
[Samuel, age eighteen, was employed by President Brigham Young to help with the Young family's needs and projects.]
13 - 14My wages were increased to $15.00 a month and board. . . . President [Young] was finishing the Lion House and he set me to cleaning up and preparing the rooms for occupancy. I helped his families to move into their new quarters about the last of November 1855. The President boarded half of his time in the Lion House and when not there it [fell to] me to call the family together and pray with them and to ask blessings at the table, etc. etc. This used to be a hard task for me [shy] as I was and many times I should have shrunk from it had it not been [my] duty.
14 - 15[President Young] went to Fillmore as governor of the territory to attend the Legislation, before leaving he met me and told me to continue living in the Lion House and take care of his families, as I was the only man he was leaving around his premises, except the clerks in the office. I thanked him for the confidence he reposed in me and told him I would do the best I could. . . . It took me all my time to do what was required of me.
15 - 16

After the President had been gone a few weeks the measles broke out among the [Young] children and we had a serious time. Nine were down at one time. . . . For five weeks I never took my clothes off except to change my underclothing and all the sleep I would be able to get was when so much exhausted I could go no longer, administering so much day and night took all the vitality out of me. Often when I would take my hands off the sick child I would rest with exhaustion. I fasted much to benefit the sick and pled with God to restore them to health. Clara Decker Young's [son] Jeddie was very sick and I exercised myself over him very much but after a lingering illness of several weeks his spirit left its body to go to a better place on 11 January 1856. I believe I mourned over it as much as I ever did over one of my own for I loved the child dearly. I am sure sister Clara felt I was devoted to her child's interests and remembered me with gratitude. It [was] a gloomy winter.In Brigham City we lived in a [one-room] dugout near a creek. Mother kept our dugout clean and dry. She was very much a lady, very refined, and she always made the best she could of what little she had to do with. She used to think I was a harum-scarum child and too full of fun and laughter. She often told me to smile instead of laughing aloud.



. 17

During the Spring and Summer the famine for breadstuff was very severe—as the grasshoppers had cleaned the fields two previous years to an alarming extent and [the price of] flour had run up to fabulous figures—entirely out of the reach of the poor. [President Young] had succeeded in buying a few loads of flour from Bro. Reese and stored it away. He . . . reduced all dependent upon him to half pound of flour per day. Out of that, much would be given away daily to the poor, who would call and the family would divide and many times the box would be scraped for some poor mother who represented that her children were hungry and perhaps half an hour afterward it would be scraped again for some other poor soul under similar circumstances. The flour box always yielded a little every time it was scraped for the poor. Thus have I seen the goodness of God and the faith of Brigham Young and his family manifested in helping the poor. . . . Many of the Saints in Utah suffered for want of bread during those hard times, while many resorted to pig weeds, thistle roots, mustard leaves and every kind of vegetable mixing with bran . . . for food but no one died of starvation that I am aware of.I remember when I was quite small we children would get sagebrush and fill the corner and in the evening would put a little on the fire at a time to make light enough so Father could read the Book of Mormon to us. We liked so well to hear him read. Mother would be sewing or knitting. I have seen my father get up with the Book of Mormon in his hand and say, "How I wish I could make my voice sound to the ends of the earth and teach them the glad tidings of the gospel!" He read the Book of Mormon through seven times and was reading it again when he died.—Sabra Jane Beckstead (Hatch)

In August, 1856, one evening after the workmen had all gone home, I stood looking into the street from the porch over the Lion of the Lion House, when suddenly I felt someone's arm around my shoulders and neck. Turning my face I discovered it to be Pres. Young. Said he—calling me by name, "I think you had better go on a mission." As soon as I could recover from my surprise I answered—"I don't know what you want to send me on a mission for. I don't know anything." He answered—"I'll risk you in that matter."
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Samuel Roskelley served two missions in England. He married six wives and had thirty children. He was superintendent of Cache County schools, a captain of the Cache County Militia, and a major in the Smithfield Battalion. He was also mayor of Smithfield and president of the Smithfield Cooperative Mercantile Association. A bishop in Smithfield for eighteen years, Samuel also was recorder for the Logan Temple for nearly twenty-eight years. He died February 10, 1914, in Smithfield, Cache County, Utah.If we ever found anything [that did not belong to us] we were taught to take it to the Tithing Office, where the owner could call for it. That rule was observed all through the settlement for many years, and was a very fine custom, as it taught the children to be honest, and not to appropriate things to their own use that did not belong to them.—Mary Elizabeth Woolley (Chamberlain)

SOURCE: Journal. Holograph. Utah State University Special Collections.
97Elder Samuel Roskelley

General Conference @ 1905
97(Of the Logan Temple.)
97I take pleasure, my brethren and sisters, in representing the second temple dedicated to the service of God in this intermountain region. The Logan Temple was opened in 1884, and since that time thousands upon thousands of the Latter-day Saints have entered its sacred precincts, receiving blessings at the hands of the servants and hand-maidens of God laboring there. The spirit of Elijah has rested upon the labors of God's servants and hand-maidens, so much that thousands have received blessings at their hands. Their hearts have been made to rejoice in the holy one of Israel, and they have gone from the house of the Lord feeling that God's presence is resting upon the Temples that have been erected for the administration of ordinances pertaining to the salvation of the living and the redemption of the dead. The Saints have been made glad to know that the welding link between parents and children and husbands and wives has been made manifest in these latter days through the revelations of God to His servant, the Prophet Joseph Smith, and to his legal successors. The labor in the Logan Temple has been continuous since its dedication. We have rejoiced that the Spirit of the Lord has been with us in the work. We have been delighted with the visits of the Presidency of the Church and of the Apostles who have come to us from time to time and given us the benefit of their administrations and counsels. It is astonishing how the work has increased from the time we commenced in 1884. True, the people then had but small records. Few indeed had genealogical records to any extent. But since that time strangers to this work, persons who had scarcely any faith in the resurrection of the dead or in a hereafter, have been inspired of the Lord to compile the history of their forefathers and give data sufficient for the Latter-day Saints to work in the Temples for and in behalf of their kindred dead. Many have hoped and prayed that ways might be opened up to them by which they might receive intelligence pertaining to their ancestors, and I testify before you that in many instances the prayers of such Saints have been answered, and they have received information pertaining to their kindred dead that has simply astonished them. They have come into possession of information that they never dreamed was in existence. The results have been that the work of the Lord in Logan Temple has been carried on to a surprising extent by persons who thought they had no record whatever. I well remember persons talking with President Merrill and telling him they would like to work in the Temple, but they had no record. They simply knew a little concerning their parents and their brothers and sisters, but back of that they could not go. President Merrill advised them to do the work for those they knew about, and God would open the way for them to obtain information pertaining to their grandparents and others. They have done as advised, and the information promised has come to them, and they have come to President Merrill and others testifying that the prediction of Brother Merrill has been fulfilled. In some cases they have received books containing thousands of names of their ancestors.
97I bear testimony to you, my brethren and sisters, that this is God's work. I testify that Joseph Smith was an inspired Prophet of God. Those who have succeeded him in the presidency of the Church have also been inspired, and they have brought this work to its present standing. I know that this kingdom will triumph, because God has said so. This work will progress, salvation will be given to the living, if they will obey the laws of God, and redemption shall be brought to the dead, inasmuch as we will attend to the duties and requirements made of us by virtue of the calling whereunto we are called. May God add His blessing to us and help us to be ever faithful and true. I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.